1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus which controls a vehicle on the basis of map data or information provided from outside the vehicle so that the vehicle can safely pass a curve forward thereof.
2. Description of Relevant Art
In the field of such vehicle control apparatus, Japanese Patent Applicaiton Laid-Open No. 5-141979 discloses a known apparatus which presumes a radius of curvature of a curve of a road by calculating the radius of an arc which passes through three nodes, compares a maximum passable speed of a vehicle calculated based on the radius of curvature of the curve with a predicted passing speed of the vehicle calculated based on a current vehicle speed, and, if the predicted passing speed is not greater than the maximum passable speed, determines that the vehicle can safely pass the curve.
However, owing to an error in the map data, repair of the road or the like, a road shape determined from map data and an actual road shape occasionally do not coincide with each other, as shown in FIG. 15A. In this case, if vehicle control such as automatic deceleration is executed on the basis of the presumed road shape which is different from the actual one, a driver will have an uneasy feeling of improper control. Otherwise, owing to an error in the detection of a vehicle position on a map, a detected vehicle position and an actual vehicle position occasionally do not coincide with each other, as shown in FIG. 15B. In this case as well, if vehicle control such as automatic deceleration is executed on the basis of the presumed vehicle position different from the actual one, a driver will, again, have an uneasy feeling of improper control.